The use of polycarbonate resins for both home and industrial applications has increased tremendously in recent years. One of the most widely accepted applications of polycarbonates has been in the field of optical lenses, such as those used in the manufacture of eyeglasses, including safety glasses, and apparatus requiring lenses such as binoculars, microscopes and the like.
While the polycarbonates are excellent for these applications due to their excellent optical clarity and impact resistance among other features, they are disappointing in regard to their mar-resistance, as are many other polymeric substrates. The surfaces of lenses produced from these polycarbonates are therefore relatively easily scratched or otherwise marred, thereby rendering their lifetimes somewhat shorter than desired.
The tendency of these lenses to suffer surface damage has been most recently overcome by coating the lenses with mar-resistant coatings; see for example U.S. Pat. No. 3,518,040. In copending application, Ser. No. 560,417 filed of even date herewith, there is disclosed and claimed a novel coating composition useful in the improvement of the mar-resistance of polymeric substrates. These coatings provide excellent mar-resistance to polymeric substrates but usually tend to lose their adhesive quality after exposure to ultraviolet light.